Privacy policy

MendWell Counselling and Psychotherapy (MendWell) is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988, and the Australian Privacy Principles under that Act, and the privacy provisions of all applicable legislation.

Our Privacy Policy covers all personal information we hold, that is information or opinion that identifies an individual. This includes information we have collected from people through our office, over the phone and over the internet, such as name, date of birth, address, phone contact and email address.

When MendWell collect personal information from you, we will ensure that we do so fairly and explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it. We will only collect information that is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities.

If you are a client, we may also collect information about your billing and payment details, Medicare and insurer details as well as health information about you so that we can perform our services. We may also receive health information about you from other health service providers, where you have consented to us collecting that from those third-party providers.

Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. If we collect sensitive information (as defined under the Privacy Act), we will treat it with the utmost security and confidentiality.

Storage and Security

MendWell will hold personal information as either secure physical record, electronically on our computer systems, in cloud storage, and in some cases, on third-party servers.

Our goal is to protect the personal information collected by us. We take all reasonable steps to keep your personal information secure, safe, and protected from misuse, interference, loss or unauthorised access.

When your personal information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained and is not required to be kept by law, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify it. We may need to retain records containing personal information to comply with record-keeping obligations, and for other legitimate business purposes (such as quality assurance).

Data quality

MendWell will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the data we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date and has been obtained directly from you or other reputable sources.

If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

Complaints

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, including if you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us.

We take all complaints seriously and will respond to your complaint in accordance with any applicable timeframes imposed by law and otherwise within a reasonable period. We request that you cooperate with us during this process and provide us with any relevant information that we may need.

Date of Privacy Policy: 01/10/2023